1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transaction method and a sales system. In particular, the present invention relates to a transaction method between a customer and a service terminal, which service terminal supplies on location products and/or services, selectable by the customer, subject to costs, as well as a sales system comprising a multiplicity of such service terminals.
2. Discussion of the Background
Service terminals which supply on location products and/or services selectable by customers, subject to costs, have the advantage that, as a rule, they are open to customers at any time without personnel being needed, except for maintenance tasks and, if applicable, refilling tasks. Mentioned here in a non-exhaustive way as examples of such service terminals should be vending machines, for instance for consumer goods such as foodstuffs and/or luxury foodstuffs and tobacco and/or commodities, ticket vending machines, automated pumps for fuels, and data terminals for obtaining data subject to fees and/or for access to software applications subject to fees, for instance game programs, and/or communication services. In general, the products and/or services are supplied (or respectively made available) by these terminals in exchange for prior payment, the service terminals being equipped therefor with corresponding means for accepting and checking cash payment in the form of coins and/or notes.
Described in the patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,876 is a vending machine comprising a card reader into which a credit card can be inserted with a credit amount stored thereon for payment of goods to be supplied. According to the patent publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,352,876 the credit amount can also be loaded onto the credit card by the vending machine after successful check of a secret code entered by the customer and after successful credit check by a credit center.
Conventional vending systems with service terminals which supply on location products and/or services selectable by customers have the drawback, however, that the customer either has to have suitable cash in a particular currency since the conventional service terminals, as a rule, support only the local currency of a country, or the customer has to carry on him a credit card accepted by the vending system. Moreover conventional service terminals can only serve one customer at a time, i.e. the ordering, payment and supply of products and/or services are carried out and concluded in the conventional service terminals for one customer in each case before another customer can served.
Described in the patent application WO 98154678 is a system for access to gasoline (petrol) pumps and for filling the gasoline (petrol) tank of motor vehicles by means of these gasoline (petrol) pumps. According to WO 98/54678, an identification of the gasoline (petrol) pump and an access code are entered by the customer and transmitted to a central control unit by means of a mobile radio telephone. In the central control unit, the access code according to WO 98/54678 is checked, and the identified gasoline (petrol) pump identified, if applicable, for the filling of the gasoline (petrol) tank. According to WO 98154678, checked in addition in the central unit can be whether the respective user is entered on a black list.
It is the object of the present invention to propose a new and better transaction method between a customer and a service terminal which service terminal supplies on location products and/or services, selectable by the customer and subject to fees, and a new and better sales system comprising a multiplicity of such service terminals, which method and system in particular do not have the drawbacks of the state of the art.
This object is achieved according to the present invention through the elements of the independent claims. Further preferred embodiments follow moreover from the dependent claims and from the description.
This object is achieved according to the present invention in particular in that the service terminal transmits, via a contactless device interface, which is independent of the above-mentioned mobile radio network, an executable selection program to a portable mobile device, for example a mobile radio telephone or a communication-capable personal digital assistant (PDA), or a laptop or palmtop computer, the selection program listing on a display of the mobile device products and/or services which are available at the service terminal for selection by the customer, and the selection program generating an order record on the basis of a product selected by the customer and/or a selected service, which order record comprises a service terminal identification for the service terminal and an object identification for the desired product or the desired service, and by means of the communication functions of the mobile device transmits them via a mobile radio network to a service center. The advantage of this selection program is in particular in that the customer does not have to type in any object identifications for products and/or services, whereby entry errors of this kind can be avoided. The object identification is transmitted from the service center via the communication network to the service terminal which supplies the product identified by the object identification or the service identified by the object identification. An advantage of this solution is that, in selecting the desired product and/or the desired service, the customers are not dependent upon the user interface made available by the service terminal and consequently a plurality of customers with their mobile devices are able to order the supply of products and/or services at the same time.
In an embodiment variant, the service center checks the credit worthiness of the customer from whom the order record has been transmitted, and in the case of a positive credit worthiness transmits a credit record comprising at least one credit value via a communication network, for instance a mobile radio network, to the service terminal identified through the service terminal identification. According to this embodiment variant, on the basis of the received credit record, the service terminal releases the selection of at least one of the products and/or at least one of the services, supplies the desired product or the desired service corresponding to the selection made by the customer, and transmits a supply confirmation containing a cost amount for the supplied product or the supplied service to the service center, which bills to the respective customer the cost amount for the supplied product or the supplied service. Through the credit check prior to transmission of the credit record to the service terminal, the service terminals can be relieved of the burden from unnecessary requests from credit-unworthy customers. An advantage of this solution is that, owing to the centralized billing of the costs incurred, currency conversions of the currency of the respective cost amount can be carried out in the numerous service terminals into the currency of the respective customer account without precautions being necessary, whereby points of loyalty point programs can also be accepted and handled as customer currency, so that customers do not have to have available cash in a currency supported by the service terminal. In particular when the mobile radio network used supports roaming across country borders, which is the case, for example, in GSM, UMTS mobile radio networks or also in other, e.g. satellite-based, mobile radio networks, a further advantage of this solution is that the sales system according to the invention can be achieved and used in a cross-national way.
In an embodiment variant, before supply of the desired product and/or the desired service, the service terminal asks the customer to give a confirmation of the desired product or the desired service to be supplied. This confirmation can take place, for example, through actuation of a corresponding operating key and/or through entry of a piece of confirmation information, for instance a predefined number of end digits of the call number of the respective mobile device, which the service terminal compares with end digits which have been transmitted to the service terminal together with the credit record. Supply of undesired products and/or services can be avoided by means of the confirmation. Through the entry and the checking of the confirmation information moreover it can be verified that the same customer is involved from whom the order record was transmitted.
In an embodiment variant, the service center transmits the credit record, together with a service terminal identification for the service terminal from which the product and/or service has been ordered, via the communication network to a service terminal center, which service terminal center passes on the credit record via a communication link to the service terminal identified by the service terminal identification. This variant is advantageous in particular when the service terminals are not set up such that they can receive data directly from the service center via the communication network, so the lacking functions of such service terminals can be assumed by the service terminal center for a plurality of such service terminals.